Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardA deep-water cooling system would rely on a pipeline extended 3.7 miles into Skaneateles Lake, where the water temperature 135 feet down is a steady 42 degrees.

A new study concludes that Syracuse could become the first city in the United States to stop using electricity to cool its downtown buildings, hospitals and universities.

Instead, one of the region’s most abundant resources — cold water from Lake Ontario or Skaneateles Lake — would provide cooling power for air conditioning systems in public and private buildings.

By switching to a renewable energy source with unlimited chilling power, local government, business and industry could reduce their combined $6.5 million annual air conditioning bills by 85 percent, according to the study.

Also, supporters say, the naturally chilled water system could attract new businesses to Central New York as the region seeks to transform itself into a sustainable green economy, with low energy costs and a small environmental footprint.

Already, some of the region’s movers and shakers have endorsed the concept, saying it would put Syracuse and Central New York in a unique position to attract national acclaim.

Former U.S. Rep. James Walsh, who in 2004 secured $1.5 million in federal money to pay for the study, compared the water-cooling potential to the decision by community leaders in 1962 to build a water pipeline from Lake Ontario to Syracuse’s suburbs.

The availability of Lake Ontario water helped fuel the growth of Syracuse’s northern and eastern suburbs over the next 50 years.

David Lassman / The Post-Standard, 2002The density of buildings in downtown Syracuse and on University Hill creates a potential group of customers for a cooling district.

“The leaders of this community rolled the dice and borrowed a lot of money to build the Lake Ontario water project,” Walsh said. “Maybe it’s time for the community to roll the dice again on a sustainable energy future that not only reduces the cost of energy, but also tells the world we are on the cutting edge.”

Progress, however, would come at a steep price: It would cost from $120 million to $250 million to build the water pipelines and infrastructure necessary to set up a lake-cooling district in Central New York, according to the feasibility study.

Now it’s up to community leaders to choose from among five options examined for the study and decide whether it is worth the effort to proceed.

The study’s authors plan to offer detailed briefings on their findings this month to Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney.

Miner’s office said the mayor would not comment on the study until after her briefiing. Mahoney said she found the idea intriguing but wanted more details.

“I recall the discussions regarding the use of Lake Ontario water to cool buildings back in 2004 and thought it sounded interesting,” Mahoney said in a statement. “In the past few years, our efforts to clean Onondaga Lake have incorporated many new green technologies, and we are always interested in learning about other techniques we can apply.”

If they move forward, the leaders will have to decide whether to use the bonding authority of the Metropolitan Water Board, Onondaga County, the city of Syracuse or some combination of the three to pay for the work.

A team of engineers, scientists and government planners conducted the feasibility study under the oversight of the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

The team based its study on two successful models for lake-cooling projects — a small-scale project at Cornell University in Ithaca and a large-scale project in Toronto, Canada.

In 2004, Toronto became the first city in North America to cool its downtown buildings with lake water. The $169 million project initially served about 10 downtown office towers and Toronto’s downtown sports arena.

“You should be very, very, very proud to live in a city where a consortium of environmental scientists, bold and decisive political leaders, and risk-taking yet ultimately common-sense business leaders come together to make this project become true,” Baldwin said at the time.

Toronto’s project reduces electricity use by 90 percent, saving 85 million kilowatt-hours per year compared to conventional air conditioning systems. The project keeps 87,000 tons of carbon dioxide from polluting the air each year, the equivalent of taking 15,800 cars off the road.

In 2000, Cornell University opened the first small-scale project to use a lake for air conditioning. The university spent $58 million on a system that draws water from 250 feet below the surface of Cayuga Lake to cool about 75 of its campus buildings.

Cornell saw an instant benefit: Its power costs were reduced 86 percent, saving about $2 million per year.

Cornelius B. Murphy Jr., president of SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, believes a similar system serving University Hill and downtown Syracuse would help transform the local economy.

The two universities and three hospitals sharing University Hill already are among the region’s biggest drivers of job growth.

“Water has played a very important role in the economic development of Central New York,” Murphy said.

“As we go forward, as the Southwest and Southeast United States continues to get more strained with the availability of water to meet their needs,” it will put Central New York in a position to grow, Murphy said. “Water will be the new currency of the future.”

He said industries such as those that operate “clean rooms” could be lured into a Central New York chilled-water district because their cooling costs would be only 20 percent of what they would pay elsewhere.

Murphy said the study found the system would initially best serve high-density areas: the big buildings clustered on University Hill and the large office towers in downtown Syracuse.

Among the potential customers clustered near each other with big annual air conditioning costs are Crouse Hospital, Syracuse University, Upstate Medical Center, the AXA Towers, the Onondaga County Civic Center, SUNY-ESF, the State Tower Building and Upstate University Hospital, according to the study.

James Hassett, professor emeritus at SUNY-ESF and the study’s project director, said engineers and scientists examined five options and the cost of piping in chilled-water from Lake Ontario or Skaneateles Lake.

The study initially looked at building a new water intake extending 3.7 miles into Lake Ontario from Burt Point in Oswego. The intake pipe would be 250 feet below the surface, where the water temperature remains at about 39 degrees year-round.

Lake Ontario options

The Lake Ontario options are:

1. A $250 million plan to build the new intake pipe and a new 42-inch diameter pipeline to carry the water from Oswego to a new heat-exchange and pumping plant that would be built on Seventh North Street in Syracuse.

The new pipeline would lie along the right-of-way of the Metropolitan Water Board’s existing pipeline.

From Seventh North Street, about 30 million gallons of lake water per day would be sent to SU’s chilled-water plant. After being used for cooling, the clean water would be discharged into Onondaga Lake.

2. A $190 million plan that includes a new deep-water intake pipe but shares some of the existing infrastructure operated by the Metropolitan Water Board.

In this option, the water would be treated to drinking-water standards and be pumped through the existing pipeline from Oswego to the Terminal Reservoir on Route 31 in Clay. A new heat-exchange facility would be built nearby. A separate closed chilled-water loop would circulate the water to SU’s chilled-water plant.

Once used for cooling, the clean water would be transferred into the Terminal Reservoir to be used for drinking water, increasing the economic benefits.

If the demand for cooling water exceeds the demand for drinking water on any given day, the excess waste would be discharged into the Oneida River.

3. A $170 million plan is similar to the second option, except that the used cooling water would end up in the Eastern Branch of the Metropolitan Water Board’s drinking water system. Any excess cooling water would be discharged into Onondaga Lake.

Skaneateles Lake options

Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardInside the gatehouse in Skaneteles, plant manager Mike Lynn tends to one of four hand-operated valves that govern the intake of lake water into the Syracuse municipal water supply.

The Skaneateles Lake options involve building a new water intake pipe that extends to a depth of 135 feet where the water is about 42 degrees throughout the year. The pipeline would extend 3.7 miles from the northern shoreline.

4. A $120 million option would use existing conduits owned by Syracuse to transport Skaneateles Lake water by gravity to a new heat-exchange facility near Westcott Reservoir.

After treatment to drinking water standards, the water would travel in a closed loop system to University Hill. After used for cooling, the clean water would be returned to Syracuse’s reservoirs, increasing the economic benefits from the water. Any extra water would be pumped into Onondaga Creek.

The study’s authors said there would be no need to draw extra water from Skaneateles Lake beyond the average of about 40 million gallons per day currently drawn from the lake. The cooling system would use about 30 million gallons per day that would be returned to city reservoirs.

5. A fifth option, at $145 million, would still build a new intake pipe at Skaneateles Lake. But it would include a connection to drinking water pipelines from Lake Ontario, providing Syracuse with a bigger backup system to its Skaneateles Lake supply.

The state Health Department would have to approve any of the four options that sends cooling water back into the drinking-water supply. Existing regulations prohibit such uses.

The study’s authors said state health officials indicated they would consider a waiver for cooling water “protected by multiple barriers.”

Walsh said he initially hoped any lake-cooling project would have the added benefit of a discharge into Onondaga Lake. Scientists were intrigued by the prospect of adding millions of gallons of clean, oxygen-rich water to what was once one of the nation’s most polluted lakes.

But the study found the cooling water would have only a modest benefit for Onondaga Lake, which has improved dramatically over the past few years, thanks to expanded sewage treatment and other efforts to stop sewage from polluting the lake.

Steve Effler, research director for the Upstate Freshwater Institute in Syracuse, said his scientists came up with a computer model predicting how the lake would change with the addition of 30 million gallons per day of the cooling water.

Effler said the study found the cool, oxygen-rich water would help create a more hospitable lake environment for some cold-water fish, such as brown trout.

“It wasn’t like this dramatic change where we would have increases in oxygen all summer long,” Effler said. “It’s some benefit, but not huge.”
Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.